%0 Journal Article %A Moore, Alison Rotha %T Progress and tensions in modelling register as a semantic configuration %D 2020 %J Language, Context and Text %V 2 %N 1 %P 22-58 %@ 2589-7233 %R https://doi.org/10.1075/langct.00020.moo %K semantic networks %K register %K registerial cartography %K surgical team interaction %K agentive role %K stratal alignment %K context of situation %K context networks %K healthcare communication %K tenor %I John Benjamins %X Abstract

Halliday (1978: 111) defines register as “the configuration of semantic resources that the member of a culture typically associates with a situation type.” Elsewhere, however, he stresses that when we talk of “a register” this is a term of convenience: register is more properly theorised as continuous variation along many linguistic dimensions. In this paper I review progress in our capacity to describe register and context of situation and ask whether the tension between discrete and continuous models of register might hinder such progress. I then consider Hasan’s (1983, 2013) contextually-open networked model of message semantics, arguing that in conjunction with context networks it has potential to map register variation but still needs to be tested across a large and varied set of domains. Examples from healthcare interaction ground the discussion. %U https://www.jbe-platform.com/content/journals/10.1075/langct.00020.moo